Difference between revisions of "Geological Time"
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| First dinosaurs || 41 years 5 months || 2 years 2 months | | First dinosaurs || 41 years 5 months || 2 years 2 months | ||
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− | | 200 million years of mammals. || 41 years 9 months || 1 | + | | 200 million years of mammals. || 41 years 9 months || 1 year 11 months |
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− | | 150 million years of birds. || 42 years 2 months || 1 | + | | 150 million years of birds. || 42 years 2 months || 1 year 5 months |
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− | | 130 million years of flowers. || 42 years 5 months || 1 | + | | 130 million years of flowers. || 42 years 5 months || 1 year 3 months |
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| 65 million years since the non-avian dinosaurs died out. || 43 years || 7 months | | 65 million years since the non-avian dinosaurs died out. || 43 years || 7 months |
Latest revision as of 12:02, 4 November 2021
If the world were an woman … we could call her Gaia … aged 43
Let's set a scale of 2 million years = 1 Gaia week, so 104 million years = 1 year. And sure enough, in round numbers, 44 Gaia years = 4.6 billion years which is our current scientific understanding of the age of the Earth. At the other end of the scale, 6,000 years which encompasses all of written human history = ½ a Gaia hour
Gaia tells the story of her life
Event | Gaia's Age | How long ago 'Gaia time' |
---|---|---|
About 3.5 - 3.8 billion years of simple cells (prokaryotes). | 8 years 7 months | 35 years 1 month |
3 billion years of photosynthesis. | 14 years 10 months | 28 years 10 months |
Great Oxidation Event | 23 years 8 months | 20 years |
2 billion years of complex cells (eukaryotes). | 24 years 5 months | 19 years 2 months |
1 billion years of multicellular life. | 34 years | 9 years 7 months |
600 million years of simple animals. | 37 years 10 months | 5 years 9 months |
570 million years of arthropods (ancestors of insects, arachnids and crustaceans). | 38 years 2 months | 5 years 5 months |
550 million years of complex animals. | 38 years 4 months | 5 years 3 months |
500 million years of fish and proto-amphibians. | 38 years 10 months | 4 years 9 months |
475 million years of land plants. | 39 years 1 month | 4 years 6 months |
400 million years of insects and seeds. | 39 years 10 months | 3 years 10 months |
360 million years of amphibians. | 40 years 2 months | 3 years 5 months |
300 million years of reptiles. | 40 years 9 months | 2 years 10 months |
First dinosaurs | 41 years 5 months | 2 years 2 months |
200 million years of mammals. | 41 years 9 months | 1 year 11 months |
150 million years of birds. | 42 years 2 months | 1 year 5 months |
130 million years of flowers. | 42 years 5 months | 1 year 3 months |
65 million years since the non-avian dinosaurs died out. | 43 years | 7 months |
2.5 million years since the appearance of Homo. | 43 years 7 months | 8 days |
200,000 years since the appearance of modern humans. | 43 years 8 months | 16 hours |
25,000 years since Neanderthals died out. | 43 years 8 months | 2 hours |